In consultation with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Center for Global Health (CDC CGH), this study juxtaposed narrative and non-narrative message designs for global public health initiative issues management. The former directly affected intentions to share the message interpersonally and via social media and indirectly affected the outcomes via perceptions of message features and mediating states (i.e., story structure, comprehension, personal pertinency, information overweight) and transportation. The study adds to theory and practice by ratifying transportation's mediating role, reposing on a message features approach to narrative persuasion study, and addressing the challenges of issues management in global public health.